Ten reasons farmers must go back to coffee production

There is more coffee demanded than is available and consumption is growing Farmers will only be struggling to meet the ever increasing demand and so will always have favourable prices.

Cameroon still has sufficient and unlimited land to produce both Arabica and Robusta coffee other coffee producing countries with limited capacities to fill the wide gap between demand and supply.

Coffee producing countries are beginning to consume their coffee more and more making highly consumer countries to depend more on countries like Cameroon that are producing but consume less.

The climatic conditions for coffee production in Cameroon are equally more favourable than elsewhere. There is sufficient rainfall hence no irrigation.

The economics of coffee are equally favourable for Cameroon at least for some of the major producing areas like the NW Region, the Noun valley and the East Region where alternative crops are far less competitive than in other areas. Cameroonian farmers earn far more of the FoB price for coffee than their counterparts in comparable origins.

New cultivation techniques make it possible for farmers to integrate food crops and coffee so that they can have food to eat and sell while still waiting for coffee to start producing.

New high producing coffee species have been developed which makes it possible for farmers to produce more coffee in a small piece of land and so make more money in the past.

New coffee species take a shorter time to begin to produce than what farmers used to have in the past. Java 2 takes just twenty four months to begin produce close to its maximum.

The coffee sector is highly subsidized at the moment with government and international groups providing seedlings and inputs to those who are interested in the crop and can show proof of available land

Challenges to produce more coffee

The challenges to produce more coffee are many and varied and both government and farmers must face them head on and stop any wishful thinking.

First and foremost farmers and especially the youth must be convinced that they can make a living from coffee. For them to be convinced, a couple of things need to be done by the relevant stakeholders;

Improvements in the living conditions in the rural areas where coffee is grown

Young people are running away from the rural areas because of poor living conditions. Idle youth in the cities are even afraid to go back to the villages because they basic necessities like electricity, roads, telephone network, health care and potable water. If the state could make these amenities available, young people will stay in the villages and with the opportunities available in the coffee sector, they will develop interest in coffee production.

Farmers need support in the provision of the necessary coffee farm inputs

Input such as planting material (Seedlings)- difficult for farmers to prepare without support. This planting material needs to be prepared as close to the target farmers as possible. The seedlings need to be certified CBD resistant and high yielding- java 2 has proven to be so.